From the looks of it, we might be tied for the 8th spot. Boston will lose all 3. GSW will win one of the two. Rockets and T-Wolves will lose both.
That would make us tied for seventh: 6. Boston 50 losses 7. Rockets 49 losses 7. Wolves 49 losses 9.Warriors 48 losses
... and there is no way we'll do better. The best we can do is a tie for 7th. Boston has locked up #6 -- not mathematically, but they ain't winnin' another. Why? They're smart. They actually benched Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West today. Wow. Didn't play a single one a single minute. Still almost beat the Nets, but they are developing Gerald Green and other young players. They're no dummies folks... they know there is only a hair separating them at #6 from a slew of teams right at their doorstep and they are not giving it up. Put Boston at #6 and Minnesota at #7 in permanent marker. Best we can hope for is to lose the final two and tie the TWolves at #7 -- then wish a victory on Golden State and Seattle to get them off a tie with us. Seattle is beating the Clippers tonight by 12 early in the third... they were doing that against the Clip show the other night though too and lost. Most important thing for the Rockets - MAKE DAMN SURE TO LOSE THESE FINAL TWO! None of this "playing out of your mind" crap .... stay IN MIND, Houston.
Clutch, so who are you rooting for in the draft? I'm too tired to read back all the pages in this thread...
Well, it looks like Seattle is gonna win. They are up 28 points in the fourth quarter... 110 - 82. Sweet!
This is excellent analysis. If people check the mock draft from the draftexpress website, the #6 and #7 spots are crucial for the Rox. The mock draft has Roy at #5, Gay at #6, the top 4 are Aldridge, Tyrus Thomas, Morrison and Bargnani, then the talent drops significantly or the subsequent players do not fit well for the Rox team. Rox has to get that #7 spot if Boston sucks it up to grab the #6. If Rox can get #7 and Noah declares or some team grabs Tiago Spliter to get size, that could potentially move both Roy and Gay one spot down. It would be no brainer for the Rox GM to pick either Roy or Gay. So this is it, grab the #7 or at least a share of the #7 and hope for Noah declaring. It is extremely crucial for the Rox to have a chance to get Roy or Gay, they are perfect fit for this team from the draft class.
I think back now, with the season near its end, and I wonder,,,, Miss a shot here, flagrent foul there, and we would be talking about jumping Toronto for the 5th spot.
Even if we have the 7th pick, do you think it's possible that Gay or Roy falls to us? I don't see the Hawks, Celtics or Bulls taking another SG/SF. Is it possible that a PG sneaks into the top 7 (what the hawks really need)?
Number one picks turn out to be busts. 7's and 8's are more likely to be so....remember Eddie Griffin? It's so hard to tell, it's a crap shoot to be honest. The best player may turn out to be some guy drafted 11th. The point is, to pin the hopes that this team will be a contender on a rookie draft pick is just setting yourself up for disappointment...and it's not enough for this team to rely. More has to be done. If more is done, then yeah, with the lottery pick together then we might have a shot. I'm just looking at the big picture.
Boston, Minny, GSW. Those are the teams that stand in the way of us being 6th. Boston BARELY lost last night, which sucks even more. Seattle, i think, is gonna stay out of the picture, so we don't need to worry about it anymore. All of our attention needs to be directed towards making sure we lose out, and all of those teams win at least one game. Houston (33-47) :: Monday HOUSTON @ DENVER, Wednesday SA @ HOUSTON Boston (32-48) :: Monday CLEVELAND @ BOSTON, Wednesday MIAMI @ BOSTON Minny (33-48) :: Wednesday MEMPHIS @ MINNY GSW (33-47) :: Monday PORTLAND @ GSW, Wednesday GSW @ UTAH hopefully we lose both of our games. that will put us at 33-49. the games in bold are games i believe can help us. portland sucks even more now that they don't have darius miles, and those 2 end-of-the-season games at home for boston and minny could really be pride games. if all three teams win those [bold] games, the records would be :: Houston (33-49) Boston (33-49) Minny (34-48) GSW (34-48) but that's a lot of hoping.
Remind me again what the tie-breaker is if multiple teams finish at 33-49? Who gets more ping pong balls? Is there a tie breaker at all?
The Memphis Minny game could get very interesting as it is in both team's interest to lose that game. And then we do have a Clippers Grizzlies matchup this week also with both teams fighting to lose so then can get #6 and face Denver. What a wacky way to end the season.
We only need two more teams to win Boston and Golden State. We're ahead of Minnesota even if we tie in losses because we tied the season series and have a worse conference record (Hou: 18-34 vs. Minn: 20-32). Golden State could possibly beat Portland, because its Portland and its in Golden State. Golden State would have 34 wins. Boston could possibly beat Cleveland, because Cleveland's game has no influence on its seed, and its in Boston. Boston would then have 33 wins. We tied season series and they would have a better conference record because they just won. (Hou: 18-34 vs. 19-33) Of Course....We still have to lose @ Denver and vs. San Antonio (all those conference records are estimated end of season records)
I believe Zach Randolph has been suspended for tonights against Portland. I hope that helps the rockets situation. Tonights game against Denver scares me alittle cause Denver may just start to mail it in and get ready for the playoffs. Also Jonathan Feigen's mention in the Chronicle about the longest losing streak at the end of a rocket season may be posted in the rockets locker room by Golum. Plus Deke, Howard and Rybo used to play for the nuggets for a potential pride thing. Hope the rockets lose by 30.
We are a bunch of chumps. Does JVG thinks he's accomplishing anything with this win tonight? George Karl is laughing at us right now. He threw the game because he knew JVG would be dumb enough to take it. I'm tired of doing things the 'right' way, while ignoring the 'smart' option. First we play our way into a series against the mavs, and now this debacle. Trade Juwan, trade Hayes, get rid of these stupid bums. I bet they feel real good about themselves right now. Oh, and I sure as hell don't want to hear any of these anti-tankers complain about a key player being just out of our reach when draft-day comes along. We got played like a bunch of fools tonight. You think Les is watching this game and celebrating after the 'win'? Hell no.
Dumbest thing I've seen a franchise do in a long time, honestly. Juwan Howard hit one of the "back-fixers" too. Van Gundy is a moron, without a doubt.
